Path of Blades
by SachiShimazu
Summary: Rated T for the reason that I'm not sure of the levels of Swearing and/or Violence that will be present in the future. Basically just a self insertion fanfic, because every Sword Art Online fan wants is to be trapped in Sword Art Online *obvious sarcasm is obvious*. Obviously I don't own Sword Art Online or anything else I make reference to in this series.
1. 1 - The First Day

The First Day

_On November 6, 2022, the public release of the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online, or SAO, became the talk of gamers all over the world. People had been lining up to get the first releases of the game, to jump into the experiences that all the beta testers had said were so great._

_ While the world was in hype, there was a dark presence within the game's production. Kayaba Akihito, the main creator of the game, had secretly designed the game to suit his ideas. He had turned SAO into a roguelike game, but with the stakes extremely high. What the fans didn't know was, once they logged in, they couldn't log out, and they couldn't afford to die._

"All right, the store is ope…" The manager of the local game store opened the doors to a stampede of fans, all lining up to get a copy of the new VRMMORPG, SAO, and the NerveGear console to play it. The poor man hadn't expected to be knocked down by the rush of all the gamers, but he was knocked to the ground before he could even finish his sentence.

"You know, this reminds me of something that would happen in an anime." One of the few eager gamers who didn't rush in looked at the store manager. "And I thought the hype over the Call of Duty games was crazy. At least they are hyped up over a decent game."

"Seriously, you got to get over your hate for the FPS genre. I get that you don't like it for personal reasons, but some of those games are actually good. And I remember you saying that you actually enjoyed HALO."

"Dude, I wish you'd stop bringing that up every time I bag Call of Duty." Both of the friends grabbed a copy of the game they had been waiting for off the ground. In the mad rush, most of the excited gamers had thrown the cases everywhere to get their copy. "I swear these guys are probably going to die a few times on the first floor, they are way too excited."

"We'll see if you can survive your first few steps outside the first town. We both know how much you fail at these sorts of games." The quick retort was followed by an incoming punch from his friend, which he caught just as it was about to hit his arm.

"Damn you, why do you have to be so quick. Oh well, see you in the game later." Wishing that he could get some payback on his friend, he sulked out of the store, looked once more at the store manager, who had gotten himself up, and headed home.

Once the game was booted up, the character of "Rukia_Shimazu" was created. Rukia was a tall teenager with short brown hair. He had chosen a theif-esque looking class, with the starting weapon of a knife.

While Rukia and his friends were waiting in line for the game store to open, they had all said they would wait for each other at whatever the beginner's spawn area was. They had also said to each other what their character names would be.

One of Rukia's friends, whose username was going to be "Jinx_the_Brave", logged in at the same time as Rukia, although they didn't realise it. Rukia started swiping his hand to open the main menu, but the menu wasn't opening. As he was starting to get frustrated, a player with blue hair tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, you'll need to use your other hand for that." Jinx snickered at the advice the player was giving Rukia. "And swipe like this." The man demonstrated the action to open the menu.

"Oh, so kind of like a cat then" Rukia smiled and cocked his head. Jinx looked over to the cat comment, thinking that it was possibly his friend.

The blue haired man rubbed his head confused. "Well, okay, you could look at it that way. The name's Diabel, glad I could help."

"Thanks mate." Diabel walked away after Rukia didn't say his name. He went to open the menu, saying "Nyan" as he swiped his hand down. As soon as he said that, Jinx turned around and tapped Rukia on the shoulder.

"Too much cat references. You have got to stop with the nyan thing." Jinx smiled at Rukia, holding his sword over his shoulder for no reason other than to look cool.

"Jinx, you know two of my favourite animes have characters that like being Nekos occasionally. And I see you didn't skimp out on the samurai style." Jinx had designed his character both to show that he liked the series Total War, as well as to mock Rukia's lack of skill at strategy games.

"Let's hope you do better at this MMO then you do at Shogun 2. You know you suck at a game when you can't beat the tutorial." Ever since Rukia tried playing that, Jinx had mocked him about it.

"Anyway, you want to start up that guild now, or wait for everyone to catch up? I'm not sure we'll be able to find them as easily as we found each other." Rukia opened the menu to find the guild menu.

"May as well do it now, not everyone recognizes you little verbal tic" As if on cue, Rukia swiped his hand as if he was a cat and said nyan. "Everyone else just finds it weird. We'll find them soon."

"All right, you want to go do some quick grinding, since the developers clearly didn't bother to create a tutorial level." Rukia found the screen to create a guild and created the Crows of Saika guild. He sent a guild request to Jinx.

"Yea, I guess we should. And sure I'll join, although I wish you would stop with the Crows of Saika name." Jinx accepted the guild request. "So, what you going to make the emblem, a rifle or a black and red crow?"

"I'll think about it tonight Jinx. Let's get goi…" Before Rukia could finish, a blue light consumed both him and Jinx, teleporting them to a colosseum in the middle of the Town of Beginnings.

"Uh, Jinx, what the hell just happened? Why did we get teleported to this place?" Suddenly a red hexagon appeared in the sky saying "System Announcement" on it. When it finished flashing, more of the red hexagons appeared to cover the sky with "System Announcement" or "WARNING" on them.

Before Jinx and Rukia could start trying to ask questions, a substance that looked like blood flowed from the edges of the hexagons. The liquid combined to for a red robed figure. It raised its arms and started talking.

"I'm sure you have already noticed the log out button missing from the main menu," said the voice of the robe, "But this is not a defect in the game." The players in the colosseum were confused, they started talking to each other, worried. Surely the GM was joking.

"You will not be able to log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear for you. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave destroying your brain and thus ending your life." Images of news articles about this were brought up by the floating robe. The GM wasn't lying. There really was no way to log out of this game, and they could die from prematurely evacuating.

"Now are we done with the public service announcement, I want find a way to escape" Rukia was becoming irritated. He had school, he had friends who weren't quite into MMOs that much which he wasn't going to be able to see. "Jinx, we need to stick together."

Just then, the GM began to speak. Maybe he was going to say a way out of the game, Rukia hoped.

"There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your Hp drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost." Rukia knew there was something more to this. It wasn't going to be that you'd just create a new avatar like a normal rogue-like. "And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

There was the kicker that he had waited for. Rukia looked up at the GM's robed figure and cocked his head. How could anyone be so sadistic, so cruel? Games were meant to be a fun way to live a life that you could never live IRL. This game was designed to simulate another life so much though that you'd die IRL as well. What twisted mind could think of that?

"There is only one way to escape this game." Rukia and Jinx already guessed what had to be done. Clearing all 100 floors was the only way to escape. Why else would an MMO have such a progression and be a trap like this.

"So basically, it's an actual RPG with an endpoint unlike other MMOs. Rukia, you sure we can handle this?" Jinx knew that Rukia wasn't an amazing gamer, especially when it came to MMOs or RTS games.

Before Rukia could respond, the robed figure had one last thing to say. "I have left an item in your inventories." Everyone opened their inventories at the robed figure's final remark before it disappeared. There was a strange item called the Reflecting Mirror. Rukia was suspicious, the GM who had just announced they were trapped in this game was giving them an item. Would this be an item that would help keep them alive, screw them over, or just amuse the twisted man who created this death game? Before he could decide whether to toss the item or not, people around him, including Jinx, were taking the item out of their inventories. They were surrounded in a blue light and suddenly their avatars had changed.

"What the hell is going on, what did that item do?" Rukia looked around until he saw his friend Jinx… but he looked different. He was like what he looked like in real life. It wasn't much of a change, mainly that he was taller than what his avatar originally looked like. There were also other subtle differences between his avatar and his current appearance, but it still shocked Rukia all the same. "Jinx, you look like you do IRL, this is weird."

Jinx looked around and saw people covered in the blue light and their appearance changed. Then he looked at Rukia and saw he hadn't used the mirror yet. "Okay, I know you like to make your avatar mostly like yourself, but just use the damn item. It would be wrong if you didn't after everyone else has." Jinx's friend clearly agreed with that logic and used the item. As Jinx had said, there wasn't much of a difference. It was mostly height and hairstyle differences.

"I don't see the point of this, why would they change everyone's avatars, especially when some people would have put so much time into their avatar creation." The creator's intentions didn't really come across properly through the speech. Rukia was confused by everything that had happened.

Rukia drew his weapon. "This dagger, it is my only defence against all the dangers in this world." Rukia closed his fist around the dagger and shot his hand into the air. "Jinx, we will survive in this game. It won't defeat us."

Jinx cocked his head. "What the hell showmanship are you doing you idiot." Jinx slapped his friend in the back of the head. Thankfully PVP was not possible within towns otherwise he might have actually caused some damage to his friend.

"Come on Jinx, just take out your katana and do it with me." This earned him another slap to the back of the head. "Yea, I should have seen that one coming." He rubbed the back of his head, even though it didn't actually hurt. "Let's go, we should probably do a bit of grinding for levels and stuff Jinx."

"Yea, you really do have a death wish, don't you Black Sta- Rukia."

"And here I was thinking you'd never watched Soul Eater Jinx. At least I know that you've seen that." Then Rukia realised something. "Hold on, I'm not going to be able to watch any anime for a long time." He crashed down onto his knees and screamed 'WHY!'

Jinx slapped him again. "Keep up the theatrics and I can raise my martial arts skills to max before they even clear the first floor. Honestly, it's getting annoying."

Rukia just smiled. "Let's get going. At least two levels then we can come back."

"I never realised how much of an idiot you are." Jinx sighed and followed behind Rukia. He had the horrible feeling that his friend was going to get himself killed. "Hold up… if you're Black Star, who does that make me? Rukia!"


	2. 2 - Crossing Paths

Crossing Paths

_With almost 10000 people trapped in a death game, they know that their only way out is to clear all 100 floors. There were almost certainly people who were going to die, especially before the completion of the first few floors. Our hero is not a member of this story. Instead, it follows a group of amateur MMORPG players who are trying to survive rather than be strong._

"Jinx, come on, were almost at the level 1 training area. Hurry up." A dagger wielder with scruffy dark brown hair was eagerly running out into the field. He was slashing his dagger against the air as a practice, loving the fact that he could actually feel himself doing the attacks.

"Rukia, you honestly look like you are running out there to get yourself killed or something. You remember that this game will kill you when you die. No Leroy Jenkins like you would normally do." A katana wielder with short blonde hair, yet a fraction taller than his friend was walking calmly, a little ways behind the dagger wielder.

Unsure how new areas worked in this game, they were both awaiting some message saying that they had changed zones or something on their HUDs, but no such message was displayed. They had to rely on the hope that they didn't wander into the territories of hostile mobs while trying to find the place.

Finally they found some mobs and people grinding. There was a group of five people all taking on two boar like enemies together, the female in the group seeming hesitant about fighting. Not wanting to steal and Exp or drops from the group, the two moved on. They came across another of the boar mobs. It was alone and had the tag Frenzy Boar over the top of it. It was definitely the mob they were looking for.

"Jinx, found one!" Rukia shouted to his friend, who was still catching up to his friend. Thankfully the mob wasn't hostile, because Rukia had completely dropped his guard.

Jinx drew his katana from its sheath at his waist. "You know that if this mob was hostile you'd already be dead, right?"

"But it's not. This is the level one area, they wouldn't have hostile mobs in this area, just neutral." Rukia unsheathed his dagger and prepared himself to strike. He had heard about Sword Skills from the beta tester's reviews. He just had to make the right motion…

He tossed the dagger into the air and caught it, gripping the dagger so that the blade was parallel to his arm. Rukia got in a crouching position and put his dagger arm behind his and his other in front. There was a sound like something charging up and he felt… something, like a build-up of energy. He grinned and released the energy, his body charging forward with such speed it was like he had flashstepped. He struck the boar, which was still a neutral mob, and its health depleted fast.

The boar turned to Rukia. He didn't have enough time to charge up another skill and this game relied on the use of sword skills. With a dagger he wasn't able to block properly and normal attacking didn't do that much in this game. The boar charged, and Jinx was too far away to help him. Just as he through that the boar was going to hit him, he heard another charging sound.

A rock seemingly came out of nowhere, until Rukia heard some voices shouting out. He turned to see the same group that they had passed before was running towards that. "There you go, and, now its attention is on us." They got ready for battle, the girl from before standing right at the back, looking extremely nervous about the fight.

Before the boar was even halfway between the other group and Rukia, Jinx came running at the boar, his katana glowing in an orange light. He jumped in the air and struck across the boar's side, creating a large red gash before the boar explodes into blue triangles.

"These Sword Skills are pretty damn amazing. I mean you jumped higher than you ever would have been able to IRL Jinx. And that mid-air twirl, so graceful." Rukia smirked during his last comment.

Jinx dropped his head in disappointment at his friend. "Seriously, what did I tell you, no going Leroy Jenkins. Just because I called you Black Star an hour ago doesn't mean you have to act like him." Jinx looked up. "I will say though, that flashstep was amazing in its own right. If only your damage stat was higher, then you wouldn't have had to worry about a retaliation."

The group of five had reached Rukia and Jinx. Rukia stepped forward and held out his hand. "Thanks guys, you really saved my ass out there. Those things may be weak but the shock of realising you're going to be attacked really gets to you."

The leader of their group took Rukia's hand and shook it. "No problem, Sachi here saw you pass by us a while ago and I think she recognized you or something. Anyway, we're actually a small guild of friends called the Black Cats of the Full Moon. My name is Keita, the blonde one is Ducker, Sasamaru is the one with the spear, The mace wielder is Tetsuo, he's the one who threw the rock, and Sachi is the girl who seems to be hiding behind everyone else at the moment."

"Black Cats of the Full Moon. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it?" Rukia received a slap in the back of the head, his life bar drained ever so slightly as a result. "You know that actually does damage since we aren't in a town… Anyway, I'm Rukia and this here is Jinx."

"Please forgive Rukia, he normally isn't this much of an ass when it comes to… well, anything really. Anyway, pleased to meet you guys. We have our own guild, the Crows of Saika. The fool picked out the name." Jinx looked over to Rukia, who was opening the menu with the cat action that he had used before, accompanied by the nyan. "Seriously Rukia, how many stupid things have you done in front of these guys in the past minute?" Rukia's action did provoke a laugh from some of the Black Cats though.

Rukia turned around and stick his tongue out playfully and went back to checking what he had gotten from the battle. It seemed that the boar had dropped a health potion and some in game currency called Col. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. "Yo Jinx, what did you get?"

Jinx swiped the menu open, finding a boar tusk in his inventory. "I think it's a crafting material, you?"

"Health pots. Anyway, you know Monkey is going to probably be a blacksmith, it could be useful. I might try my hand at whatever crafting systems they have in the game as well, although I doubt it will be as good as Dragon Quest."

Jinxed sighed. His friend was making an idiot of himself, and in front of a girl too. This must have been what it is like to have no dignity. "Again with the Dragon Quest. Get over it, that was a great crafting system but no one else decided to copy it. Or give any more of those games a local release either."

Keita looked at the two friends bantering between themselves. He didn't really want to break up the moment, but he wanted to get a word in. "Hey guys, I'll keep in touch with you two, you seem like fun." Keita tried to send a friend request to Rukia and Jinx, but it wasn't registering their names. "Let me guess, you two have long character names with underscores and stuff."

Jinx rubbed his head. "Yea. How about we just send you the friend requests. I'm assuming you are just Keita for your username?" Keita nodded in response, accepting Jinx's friend request then Rukia's.

Rukia put two fingers up to his forehead and flicked them away as if saluting. "Well, I guess we'll see you around Black Cats."

Keita chuckled, Rukia was still trying to be a comedian. "Same to you Crows." They both went their separate ways. As soon as they were out of earshot of their new friends, Jinx turned to Rukia.

"What the hell is this anyway?" He imitated Rukia's gesture mockingly. "You've done it for so long, it's so stupid and I don't get what it is."

Rukia let out a slight laugh. "It's just my goodbye gesture. I don't even remember where I picked it up from, I just do it."

Jinx couldn't really argue with that. Rukia tended to pick up random thing from places and just adopt them as an action. "Anyway, I'm glad you didn't do that Monkey Magic thing when we mentioned him." As if on cue, Rukia put his right hand in the same gesture as before, but instead moved them back and forth and inch from his mouth while blowing a steady stream of air at them.

"Yea, that Monkey Magic thing." Jinx was tempted to slap Rukia again, but if he got into a habit of it he might actually do a lot of damage to Rukia in the long run. He was lucky that it wasn't registered in the game as an attempted PK and he was still a Green player. "Even the game must think you're an idiot."

"Guilty as charged. Anyway, let's go find Monkey." Rukia made it look like he was about to do the action again, but he didn't. "Oh come on, lighten up Jinx. I wasn't going to do it anyway. Let's say when we get back to town where there is no damage and no chance of becoming Orange you can slap me as hard as you want, even if I won't feel a thing."

The next day, Jinx and Rukia had gone out grinding again. Jinx messaged Keita to see if he wanted to maybe come with them today and farm mob as a group of seven, they might have been able to go to the higher level areas. After fighting off some boars and a few higher level wolf enemies, they came across two figures who looked surprisingly worn out.

One of them was a fairly stocky teenager with short black hair and some slight stubble and a quarterstaff as a weapon. The other was a female with black hair in pigtails and a greatsword across her back. As they came closer into view of Jinx and Rukia, they both recognized the quarterstaff wielder.

"Monkey, is that you," both of them said simultaneously. Monkey looked up at the sound of his username being called out. It took him a few seconds to recognize his friends, but as soon he did he started running towards them.

"Hey guys, I was wondering where you were. I was really worried about you two and Neo." Monkey looked around for his other friend. "Oh, have you guys not found him?"

"No not yet. So, how have you been?" Rukia was still curious about the girl that Monkey was travelling with, but he thought it best not to bring it up just yet.

"Well, I've been doing some grinding, but other than that I haven't really got up to too much." Monkey was spinning his quarterstaff around casually while talking to his friends.

Jinx laughed as he noticed what Monkey was doing. "You really are taking the Sun Wukong thing on. Quarterstaff and the username Monkey. Honestly, I didn't even know that Quarterstaves existed in this game."

Monkey looked at his weapon curiously. "I was thinking that as well, but there was some mysterious merchant who said he would give me a special weapon class that wasn't available unless we first got it from him. I've seen one or two other people with them as well, and most people have the same reaction." He looked in his skill menu for the skill level to show his friends.

Rukia opened his own menu, repeating his nyan action. He looked for any location of the skill in his list, but there was none. "It must be a unique skill or something." He decided now was a good time to ask his friend. "Anyway, who is the girl you've been travelling with?" Rukia gestured to the person Monkey came with.

Jinx and Rukia's friend was about to talk when the black haired girl introduced herself. "Hi there, I'm Dragonhunter_Naomi, or just Naomi." She unsheathed her greatsword and swung it around. "I've been travelling with your friend here since that big announcement in the colosseum." Naomi smiled and put her hand on Monkey's shoulder.

Monkey looked uneasy from Naomi. "Yea, we've been grinding a fair amount, and you wouldn't believe the range on this quarterstaff." Monkey started spinning his weapon again and he seemed to calm down.

Jinx decided to chime in. "So, Monkey, you're most likely going to join the guild, but what about you Naomi? Since you've become a decent travelling companion with our friend here, do you want to join our guild?"

Naomi looked at the blonde samurai sceptically. She was normally a solo player, in most MMOs she didn't join guilds and rarely joined parties. However, she had been travelling with a companion for a day so far, maybe joining this guild wouldn't be so bad.

"You know what, I accept your offer." Naomi waited for the guild request to appear before her. When the screen appeared, she hit the green circle to accept the invitation.

Monkey whispered into Naomi's ear. "Hey Naomi, you know how I was telling you that my friends are a little insane… Are you sure about this?"

Naomi just smiled at her friend. "I can adapt." She then turned to Jinx. "And mister samurai, you know blonde samurais don't exist, right?"

Rukia and Monkey chucked at Naomi, and Jinx made a defensive face while holding back a smile. As Rukia stopped laughing, he looked at his guild. "I think Naomi is going to fit in here. To the future of the Crows of Saika." Rukia raised his weapon into the air, with Jinx, Monkey and Naomi soon following suit.

"Now we have one more issue to address. Monkey and Jinx, you can't both be Tsubaki, so we need to decide on which of you is Tsubaki and which character the other one is."

Jinx glared at Rukia. "You have to be kidding me. I thought that we dropped that Black Star thing yesterday. And since when was Monkey Tsubaki…?" Naomi and Monkey couldn't help but laugh at the banter between Rukia and Jinx.

"I think I'll like it in this guild after all." Naomi said after he finished laughing.


	3. 3 - Breaking Out

Breaking out

_After a whole month within the death game that was Sword Art Online, no one had found the gate to the first boss door. Within Aincrad the only escape was the clearing of all 100 floors or death, and players were fighting to ensure that the latter possibility wasn't going to happen to them. However, no matter how skilled, people were still going to lose._

_ Two thousand players have already lost their lives to this horrible creation of Kayaba Akihiko, and there would be more to come. However, soon there would be hope for the people trapped within Aincrad, all starting with the beta tester named Diabel._

"So, did you guys hear about the meeting that is being held soon?" Monkey was leaning on his quarterstaff, he had found a new quarterstaff as an enemy drop, and while it was still wooden it had engravings in it. It was slightly stronger, and it looked cool to him, so he kept it.

Rukia sighed. "Yea, I'm not too interested in participating in the boss fights. One chance to with, I'll probably lose." The group didn't like saying anything about death, so they often substituted other words in.

Jinx got up from the bench he was sitting on. "I'd actually like to check out this boss fight. Even if I don't participate, or can't, in a future fight, I want to check out this." Jinx stood there, waiting for his friends to respond. Finally, Naomi spoke up.

"I'll go with Jinx. I agree that it'd be interesting to check out the fight, see how it goes. And I'm sure that Jinx and I can protect each other." She took the greatsword's sheath off he back and laid her head on it. "Darkheart here will make sure we both survive"

"Naomi, what will you do when you get a stronger greatsword with a different colour?" Rukia watched her hug her sword. He had gotten used to it overtime, but it still unnerved him every time he saw her do it. Her sword was made of some black metal, so she had named her sword Darkheart.

The girl looked at her sword. "Eh, I'll find another sword. I actually want a sword that looks like the Darknut's one in Legend of Zelda… Uhh, the one with the wolf…" Naomi was fond of a large amount of games, but she often blanked on the names.

Monkey's scratched the side of his head. "You mean Twilight Princess? I think I've played that one before. Rukia loves that one." Naomi nodded at Monkey, who smiled in response. "Anyway, I'm not too fond of the idea of going up against bosses either. I think that Naomi and Jinx can go together to the meeting and see if the rumours are true." The two sword wielders looked at Monkey then at each other.

"Seems like a good idea. I guess we'll all meet up after either the meeting or the fight." On side Jinx whispered in an afterthought. "If we survive the fight that is." The rest of the guild heard his final comment and a look of despair spread to the rest of the group. Finally, Rukia broke the silence.

"Well, I guess we'll see you two later." He was hopeful that they'd meet up after the meeting that was being held. "And we can't be certain that it is about the boss fight, that's just a rumour." He was almost certain he was wrong, but he didn't want to lose either his friends to something that he couldn't change.

If the worst outcome would come to pass, Rukia and Monkey might not see their friends again.

While Jinx and Naomi didn't return after the meeting, they did manage to survive the boss fight. However, they were so shaken from the events that had occurred during the boss fight that they didn't return to the inn the Crows of Saika were staying at until night time.

When they entered the inn, they were greeted with cheers from Rukia and Monkey. "God damn it you two, you had been gone so long that we thought you might have been dead." Rukia ran up to Jinx and Naomi, resisting the urge to hug them. "Boy do we have a story for you, some weird shit went down while you guys were gone. There was this quest and -"

"Slow down Rukia, if you're going to be like this every time we split up… I don't know…" Jinx smiled at his friend. "And it's not like you to swear, did you miss us that much?"

Rukia nodded while Monkey got up and walked over, much calmer than Rukia was. "Anyway, why don't you tell us what happened during that fight and Rukia can share his story." The other three agreed and they all walked up to the room that they were renting, Rukia almost skipping along.

"I'm interested to hear what happened to you two while we were gone, but I guess the more important story will come first." Naomi was just barely faking a smile, but Rukia and Monkey didn't notice.

Each of the Crows of Saika sat down in their room, with Rukia and Monkey on one side and Naomi and Jinx on the other. "Well, I think we can skip what happened at the meeting, although I think that you might want to know Diabel was leading the group. He is the one who called the meeting." Rukia's eyes widened with interest. "Anyway, I'll get to the story."

_As the raid group neared the door to the boss room, there was a great deal of nervous tension in the air. The members of the party didn't seem to know how a boss in this game worked, were there ways to escape the room if things got ugly for them or would they all be slaughtered. However, no one was having second thoughts about fighting in the first boss fight of the game._

_ Jinx and Naomi were both assigned to one of the groups designated to holding off the boss' lackeys. This would give time for the main attack party to focus solely on the boss instead of worrying if the minions would attack them as well. As far as they could tell, the other party who was doing the same job was a group of two as well, a teenager with a blue top, a chestplate, jeans and a sword strung across his back and a cloaked figure whose features were almost impossible to distinguish._

_ As Diabel announced that they were entering the room, the massive doors were pushed open with such ease that they seemed to be made of paper. For thick stone doors, it didn't take much. As the raid party entered, the room suddenly filled with a multi-coloured light and a massive seemingly ape-like red creature dropped out of nowhere, with three smaller, armoured and more humanoid creatures surrounding it. Around the larger monster there were multiple health bars and a name reading Illfang the Kobold Lord._

_"Okay, so our job is to keep those little guys busy, right Jinx?" Naomi spoke quietly to her guildmate. "We are definitely not to go after the boss."_

_ "Exactly." Just as Jinx finished talking, Illfang and the three lackeys were charging at the group. The swordsman ran to intercept one of the armoured minions, Jinx pulled out his sword to distract the leftmost. As far as they could tell, there seemed to be another group distracting the third one, so the main groups were free to go all out against Illfang._

_ Jinx started up a sword skill, waiting for the armoured Kobold to come within range of his strike. As soon as it did Jinx dashed forward and slashed it across the back. He then kicked the creature towards Naomi, which they often did during grinding sessions. Naomi charged up her Greatsword and thrust it at the creature, stabbing it through the centre of the chest. The life bar was still only in yellow._

_ "Damn it these things have a lot of health. They're a lot stronger than the stuff outside." The Kobold was still recovering from Naomi's stab. Naomi jumped back as the Kobold started to charge at her._

_ Jinx ran at the creature, charging up another sword skill. When he was close to the creature, he jumped up into the air, spinning in a way that wouldn't have been possible without the game's assistance and slicing the head of the creature, and landing. "These are the boss' minions Naomi, of course they wouldn't be so easy."_

_ Naomi was already charging for the Kobold when Jinx landed. "And follow up the Helm Splitter with a Back Slice!" She ran behind the Kobold and drew her Greatsword across its back faster than what should have been possible. The creature was launched, its health bar dropping quickly. It had almost been defeated, but not quite._

_ "Aww, come on, I thought that would finish the guy. Jinx, would you care to do the honours?" Naomi sighed in disappointment that their comboes hadn't completely finished their foe._

_ Jinx rushed the enemy, katana glowing with light as he ran. "I already said that these guys wouldn't be easy Naomi." He slashed at the Kobold, draining the remainder of its HP, but not before the creature got a quick blow at the Samurai. The creature slumped onto its legs before exploding into blue triangles._

_ "So, what was it, these guys spawn every time one is defeated or to they spawn every time the boss losses a bar of HP? I can't remember what Diabel said." Jinx looked around for another enemy to fight, but there was none other than one remaining Kobold warrior and Illfang. The blue shirted swordsman and the hooded fighter had finished off their Kobold as well._

_ "I'm assuming that it is every time its health drops another bar. And what was that thing about it switching weapons? Something about a Talwar?" Naomi looked at the boss' remaining HP. It was close to being drained a quarter. "And do you think that the minions will get tougher with the boss?"_

_ "Wouldn't be a challenge if it didn't." Jinx drew his katana into a position ready to face the next opponent, while Naomi was stroking her blade. "You know, some day someone is going to mistake you for a sadist if you keep doing that."_

_ Naomi looked up at Jinx as if she had forgotten what was happening. "Yea, I know, I just love this sword, its so damn cool." She noticed Jinx was ready for the next enemy, she positioned herself within the range of Jinx's launch._

_ "They are probably going to be smarter as well, with better AIs and quicker adaptability as time goes on. I'm not totally sure, but it makes sense. They were too easy for a boss room." Illfang's health reached the end of the first life bar. It jumped back from the group and roared, summoning three more Kobolds_

_ Jinx and Naomi continued to fight the Kobolds, comboing them of each other. Like Jinx expected, the Kobolds got progressively more difficult, and generally the main boss' life was drained another bar soon after all the Kobolds were defeated. Either the boss' defense grew with each life bar drained or the life bars were not the same amount of health._

_ By the time Illfang was down to one health bar, it threw its axe and shield away, reaching for a weapon behind him. As soon as it did, Diabel ran for the monster, charging up a skill that caused his sword to glow in a cross-shaped light. As Diabel neared the monster, Jinx noticed something that the Swordsman in the nearby group yelled out to Diabel. The weapon that the monster was holding was not a Talwar, it was a completely different weapon, and while Jinx couldn't recognize it, the other swordsman called it a Nodachi._

_ "Damn it, what does he expect to do against that. The boss still has a full life bar left, it won't go down it one hit. Even if it had a Talwar and Diabel could predict its movements, he wouldn't be able to take it down in one hit." As Jinx finished talking to himself, Illfang took a swing at Diabel, knocking him up. It followed up with three more attacks, knocking the man into one of the pillars in the corner of the room. As soon as he fell, the swordsman in the blue shirt ran to him, attempting to give him a health potion, but Diabel refused it._

_ It was a motion that the others would likely mistake as hesitation to give Diabel the potion. The man who had been leading the charge against Illfang laid back in the arms of the swordman, his body suddenly glitching before exploding into the same blue triangles that the monsters did when they were slain. While most people wouldn't have, Jinx could see the shock on his face when their leader had died._

_ After the shock cleared off his face, the swordsman turned to his partner and they charged at Illfang together. The swordsman parried Illfang's Nodachi while the hooded one charged a sword skill with their rapier. As she was about to hit the monster, it swung again, tearing through the cloak. The figure was a girl with bright orange hair and red and white clothing._

_ After losing the cloak, the girl struck with her rapier, launching Illfang across the room with a force that you would not expect of a rapier. "If Rukia could see this, he probably wouldn't be dissing rapiers as much as he does."_

_ While everyone else was still getting over the shock of Diabel's sudden demise, the swordsman and the rapier wielder worked together flawlessly to deal damage to Illfang. The swordman was parrying the blows while the rapier wielder focused on dealing damage. The swordsman had yelled out the rapier wielder's name before, but Jinx couldn't remember._

_ Eventually, Illfang managed to get a hit on the swordsman, launching him into the girl. Around this time some of the other groups ran at Illfang and started to attack him. However, the monster knocked down the group. It jumped in the air, but before it could kill anyone else, the swordsman recovered and intercepted the blow, knocking Illfang out of the air._

_ The swordman called out to his partner, Asuna, to finish off Illfang. They both charged at the creature, side by side, the swordsman parrying Illfang's strike, Asuna hitting the monster with one of her rapier skills, and the swordsman slashing upwards, tearing through the monster, leaving red where the flesh would have been severed and launching the creature into the air. At the tip of its arc, Illfang started to swell and exploded into blue triangles._

_ A huge message appeared in the air in block white letters. "CONGRATULATIONS" it said. Everyone was cheering at the defeat of Illfang and the clearing of the first floor. The celebration continued until a short man who had made himself known at the meeting as Kibaou decided that he wanted to be a prick again._

_ "Why did you let Diabel die?" Kibaou broke through everyone's cheering and brought everyone's attention to the temporary hero swordsman. Jinx stepped forward to try and defend the swordsman, but Naomi grabbed his shoulder._

_ "Jinx, just let it go, I'm sure he can explain it himself or something." As if on cue, the swordsman started talking in response to Kibaou's claims that it was his fault Diabel was dead._

_ He started laughing like a maniac, drawing more attention to himself than he needed. "A beta tester? I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies." His words sent a shock through the crowd of people. "Most of the thousand beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. You guys are better than they are." He could have left off there and possibly quelled the anger of the raid group. However, he decided to continue and bring at the hate towards himself._

_ "But I'm not like them. I made it higher than anyone else during the beta test. The reason I knew the boss' skills is because I fought monsters with katana skills on floors far above us. I know a lot more. Way more than any information broker." As soon as the swordsman finished speaking, Kibaou had to screw his words._

_ "That's even worse than a beta tester. You're cheating, you're a cheater." Naomi tried to step forward to argue that Kibaou's statement made no logical sense, but Jinx stopped her._

_ "Naomi, he is taking the fall for all the beta testers out there. He is sacrificing himself to protect them." People were screaming at him that he was a cheater and still going on about the fact that he was a beta tester. Eventually someone had the bright idea of calling the swordsman a beater._

_ He decided to take that name. "From now on, don't confuse me with the other testers" He put on a black cloak that had most likely been the last attack bonus from the boss._

_ Asuna ran up to the now black cloaked swordsman and asked him how he know her name. Using your real name for online games is never a good idea, but some people still do it._

_ It response, the swordsman replies with a snarky comment. "Sorry for just using your first name. Or did I mess up the pronunciation?" Asuna clearly didn't know about the party system, and the black cloaked swordsman decided to be helpful. "You can see another HP gauge below yours, around here, right?" He pointed in the general direction that the party members HP bar and names were. "Isn't something written next to it?"_

_ After a little pause, Asuna said a name. "Kirito?" So that was the name of the swordsman. It was a cool sounding name and the black cloak he put on suited the name. Asuna started laughing at the realisation that Kirito's name had been on her HUD since they formed a party._

_ Kirito then went on about strength and joining a guild to Asuna, Jinx and Naomi had stopped paying attention around that point. Kirito walked up to the door, the large concrete doors opened up as he approached and he walked through. Soon after, some of the other members of the raid party followed suit, at least to have a look at the next floor they had fought so hard to unlock._

"Well, that's basically it." Jinx fell back into his bed, exhausted just from the memory. "That's pretty much what happened."

Rukia and Monkey were wide-eyed. "You say that like it was normal, someone freaking died Jinx. Diabel died, Jinx!" After saying it, Rukia's face dropped, frozen in the shock of it.

"Don't you think I've been trying to deal with that? Diabel was such a help to us when we started out. Without him we probably wouldn't have been able to figure out the menu as quick as we did." Jinx was fighting back tears.

"So, I'm assuming our story will have to wait then?" Monkey tried to lighten the mood in the room, but Jinx and Rukia were barely paying attention. Naomi knocked on the wall by her chair to get everyone's attention. This time Jinx and Rukia looked up.

"Jinx and Rukia need time to get over what happened to Diabel. I say we should all go to sleep for the night and when we get up tomorrow morning Rukia and Monkey can talk about their amazing adventure they had." Naomi looked around, everyone was nodding. "Well, I'm see you guys in the morning."

Naomi left for her separate room, Monkey leaving for his as well. Rukia crawled into his bed in one corner of the room and pulled his sheets over himself, his face buried in the pillow. Jinx practically mimicked his friend's actions, although he was facing the wall.

"Night Rukia." Jinx spoke quietly, still facing the wall. Rukia muffed an inaudible response, presumably something along the lines of 'good night,' but Jinx couldn't tell.


	4. 4 - The Black Crystal

The Black Crystal

"Yo Rukia, Jinx, are you two up yet?" Naomi was knocking on the door and calling out. Monkey had woken up during Naomi's yelling, and was now rubbing his eyes, still tired.

"Naomi, you know this is an inn. There are a lot of other people here sleeping, and they won't appreciate being woken up by you yelling." Monkey yawned, clearly having hoped to sleep more than he did.

"Eh, I'm not a very heavy sleeper, so I get impatient when I'm waiting for other- Oh, hey Rukia." The door had been opened while Naomi and Monkey were bantering, but neither of them had noticed until now.

"Naomi, do you realise how stupid it is to ask someone if they are awake or not. If they aren't awake and you don't get a response, you just keep asking till you get a response." Rukia wasn't as tired as Monkey. "You're lucky I don't sleep for a long time, otherwise this would have been a Schrodinger's Cat situation that would wake up the whole freaking inn." Rukia went back inside the room he shared with Jinx and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Naomi, he has a point." Monkey walked in, surprised that Jinx was still managing to sleep through all that noise. As he sat down, he saw Jinx in his sleep gesture for Rukia to come towards him. When he did, Jinx slapped him, not very hard, but still enough to make Rukia move a bit.

"You know what, I'm not even going to ask what that was." Naomi had already walked in the door and sat herself down. She thought she saw Jinx gesturing to her to come closer, but seeing as Jinx had just sleep slapped Rukia, she didn't want to take the chance.

With Jinx still sleeping, they couldn't really listen to Monkey and Rukia's story. "Monkey, Naomi, what do you want to do while we wait?" Rukia wasn't a very patient person most of the time.

"You know, I want to have a duel. I haven't fought you before Rukia, I want to see your skills firsthand." Naomi smiled, hoping that she would be able to fight.

Rukia opened his menu, his occasionally 'nyan' occurring again. "Alright, let's see. I got a new dagger while you and Jinx were out…" Rukia suddenly remembered the story of Diabel's death, but it didn't shake him as much as he expected. "Uh… here it is." He equipped the weapon, and Monkey, Rukia and Naomi as went outside of the inn, since duels weren't allowed in inns.

"I'll send you the duel request. I'll go with a one-minute time limit and half health." Naomi scrolled through her menu till she found the option to send someone a duel request. It took her a while to remember the Rukia's full username was Rukia_Shimazu, as she got a message saying no players with the username Rukia were nearby. "Damn it Rukia, why did you have to choose two names for the username."

"You're one to talk, yours says Dragonslayer at the start." Rukia accepted Naomi's duel request and equipped his battle gear. Neither of the two had battle gear too different from their normal outfits, so it didn't take too long. The generous one minute timer till the start of the match was only on 40 seconds left when they both finished getting prepared. For the next 40 seconds, they were thinking strategies.

Rukia's strategy involved mostly dodging and ensuring that he didn't get hit. Naomi's was much simpler, hit Rukia.

When the countdown finally ended, Rukia rushed at Naomi with blinding speed, starting off with his flashstep attack. Naomi was expecting this, although she didn't think it would be quite as fast as it actually was. She brought up her greatsword to deflect the attack, but Rukia's knife still nicked her arm. The difference in speed was quite apparent, but the difference in power between the two weapons was almost as equal.

Rukia was rushing for a second attack. If he could just make sure that he didn't get hit by Naomi's greatsword then he would win by default, since he had dealt some damage to her already. He jumped into the air and slashed at Naomi, connecting the attack. He then turned so his feet landed on her shoulders and used here as a springboard to launch himself away.

Unfortunately for Rukia, those were his only tricks he had mastered at the moment. The rest would be dodging for the next half a minute to ensure that he was not hit. He rushed in close to Naomi to get her to swing her sword, but she didn't.

Naomi was waiting for Rukia to get impatient. That was his downfall. He would try to make her swing and he would dodge, then go for a blow. However, if he didn't get the chance to do that, he would eventually rush into close quarters, where she would have the chance to hit him easily.

With ten seconds remaining, Rukia's patience ran out, just as Naomi was expecting. As Rukia rushed her, she swung her greatsword straight forward, giving no time for Rukia to dodge. She impaled him straight through the chest, depleting a quarter of his health bar with a single blow. She pulled her greatsword back out, a gaping hole in Rukia's chest, and kicked him away. By the time he hit the ground the massive wound had fixed itself, but he had no chance of winning now. With five seconds left on the clock, victory would have gone to Naomi no matter what happened.

And as the last few seconds counted down, Rukia got back up and sheathed his blade. When the timer reached zero, a message congratulating Naomi's victory appeared. The combatants walked towards each other and shook hands.

"Good fighting Naomi, I certainly should have seen that attack coming, but I wasn't focusing." Rukia was trying to make excuses as to why he lost.

"You wish you impatient little bastard. You were going to do that stupid little move no matter what happened. I applaud you for knowing when you have lost though." Naomi smiled and started walking back towards the inn.

From behind her Naomi could hear Monkey and Rukia talking. She started to talk to herself. "That kid has so much energy, but he can't use it properly. Honestly, he is going to get himself killed if he doesn't learn to control it." She sighed and then Monkey tapped her on the shoulder.

"Rukia said that this is you reward for victory." He opened the trade menu up and sent her the money that Rukia had given to monkey.

"Oh joy, 100 cor, so he basically sent me two nights rent for victory, even though the amount of grinding we do easily pays for it." Naomi was doing her best to sound sarcastic, and she assumed it was working when Monkey made a sound similar to a laugh. "Anyway, let's get back already, Jinx is probably waiting for us.

By the time that Rukia, Naomi and Monkey had returned to their apartment, Jinx was just starting to wake up. "Oh, hey guys… I don't know why, but in this dream I was having I heard Naomi shouting at me." Naomi shot Jinx a glance, telling him to shut up.

"Oh, Naomi, can't you send a duel request directly from the friend list? I mean, most games have things where you can party or duel with people on your friends list quickly." Naomi opened her friends list and tapped on Rukia's username. One of the options that appeared said 'duel.'

"Damn you Rukia, stop being right." Naomi was peeved for some reason, even though she had won the duel earlier. "Anyway, don't you guys have some sort of story to tell us?"

"Oh yea," Rukia perked up, "Once upon a t-

"Oh shut up Rukia, let Monkey tell it. I'm tired and I don't need your crap" Jinx's face was buried in his pillow and he had just flipped the bird to Rukia. Monkey took up the chance to talk before Rukia could respond.

_During the day that the raid party took down the first floor boss, Rukai and Monkey had been wondering aimlessly through the forest. They were mostly grinding for experience and cor, but they were looking for anything else, like a quest to do._

_ After taking down another forest based monster, they spotted an NPC in a clearing in the distance. There were no monsters nearby, and they doubted that this NPC was going to be a merchant. Hopefully it was a quest and not just some unnecessary NPC who was doing nothing._

_ As they approached the NPC, a quest screen appeared in front of both Rukia and Monkey. However, the quest description said it required a 3 person party. After finding this obscure quest spot, the duo weren't going to just give up._

_ "Hey Monkey, do you have anyone on your friend's list other than Naomi and Jinx who might be able to help out?" Monkey shook his head, he hadn't really been doing anything since the game started away from Naomi, Rukia or Jinx. "Alright, let me check mine."_

_ Rukia was doubting that he had anyone else on his friend's list, but he checked anyway. When he opened the list though, he almost smashed his head on a nearby tree._

_ "I forgot that me and Jinx had added Keita to our friends lists. I'll send him a message, see if any of the Black Cats want to help us out." Rukia opened up the list and tapped the message icon. He typed up a message to the leader of the Black Cats of the Full Moon guild._

_ 'Hey Keita, I found this interesting quest in a forest. You should be able to see my location on the map screen. The thing is, it is a quest that is recommended for a three person party. We were curious if any of your group was free to help us out, we only need one more person.'_

_ Rukia and Monkey sat down by the nearby trees and waited to hear back from Keita. It was agonizing to wait to do a quest, so Monkey went off to do some more grinding to wait. Rukia knew that if he moved too far from the spot he would completely forget where the quest was. His short-term memory was appalling to say the least._

_ "Oh bloody hell, why has Keita not replied yet." Rukia walked back over to the quest giver. There was something that it said on the quest description that made him curious. The rewards section, underneath the cor and exp payout, there was a line of question marks. That clearly meant an item, but it normally would say what the item was._

_ "So, why are they so desperate to cover up whatever item this is? It must be important if they won't tell anyone what it is." Before Rukia could question the quest any further, a message icon appeared in Rukia's HUD._

_ 'Alright, we'll send over Sachi. We aren't doing anything today, and Sachi need more battle experience and confidence.'_

_ Rukia remembered from the first time they met the Black Cats that Sachi was quite shy, and when Jinx and himself had passed by them on the first day, she didn't seem like she was very enthusiastic about a fight. Rukia decided to try and meet up with Sachi outside the forest and get Monkey to wait by the quest._

_ After sending a message to Monkey, Rukia travelled back to the entrance to the forest, battling a few monsters on the way back. Being a solo player with a knife made the fights much more difficult, seeing as to how he had to be so close to the monsters without any backup._

_ By the time that Rukia reached the entrance of the forest, Sachi was already waiting, looking bored. "How long did it take me to get here… and you waited at the entrance…" Rukia was dumbfounded that Sachi had waited where Rukia was planning on meeting up without any sort of communication._

_ "I didn't want to go into a monster infested forest alone. And I've only been waiting a few minutes." The blue haired girl was looking down at her feet. She didn't look very interested in the idea of a fight. She started murmuring, "I never wanted to leave the first town anyway."_

_ "Come on, let's go Sachi."Rukia spun his dagger and wandered into the forest. He stopped a few metres in to check whether Sachi was following him. She was, but at a distance, looking very uneasy._

_ "Don't worry, I'm here to protect you." Rukia smiled with self-gratification._

_ Sachi began to mumble again. "I saw how you fight on the first day, I'd feel safer if I was alone." She was still not too interested in the idea of wandering into the forest._

_ As the duo ventured back towards the quest area, they faced a few mobs. Rukia was slightly more risky in his fighting on the way back as he had Sachi to back him up, but she wasn't too keen on aiding her temporary ally. She pitched in with an attack only when she saw Rukia had done something incredibly stupid that he would have taken a large amount of damage, although she backed off as soon as Rukia was back in a rhythm._

_ They eventually reached the quest area. Monkey was sitting bored waiting for Rukia to return. He got up and walked over to Rukia and Sachi. "Hello, I'm Monkey. I hope the idiot hasn't given you too much trouble." Sachi smiled at Monkey, happy to be with someone who wasn't full of themselves._

_ Rukia walked over to the quest marker. "Alright, so let's form a party. Sachi, do you have any extra parts to your username, or is it just Sachi?" She shook her head in response. Rukia sent a party request to Monkey through the friend list, then typed Sachi's name into the party request. With the party formed, he returned to the quest giver._

_ "Alright, I'm accepting the quest now." All three players saw the quest accept button appear in front of them, accepting._

_ The quest giver started to talk. "Hello travellers, you see, this monster further into the forest has stolen a very mysterious object from me. I don't need it anymore, but in the hands of a monster, it will likely cause a great deal of devastation. If you manage to defeat the monster and return the item to me, I'll give it to whoever I believe would benefit the most from it."_

_ The trio appeared confused after his last statement. Only one of them would get this special item after they all completed the quest. That didn't make any sense. Why would the quest restrict who gets the rewards?_

_ "And before you say anything, I will still give cor to the others after the item is returned to me, but this item is special, only one of it exists."_

_ Why create only one of an item? Was is so powerful that the wielder would destroy everything in their path? It didn't make sense to have such a game breaking item on the first floor._

_ "Anyway, the monster you are looking for is deeper in the forest." The quest giver pointed behind himself and nodded. "I wish you all luck."_

_ The trio headed off. Rukia was in the lead while Monkey was trying to calm down an agitated Sachi. "Monkey, Sachi, are you two thinking that this quest is just a bit odd as well, or is it just me?"_

_ "Rukia, even a certified idiot would find that something was up with this quest." Rukia showed a mock expression of shock._

_ "I'm not a certified idiot." Rukia folded his arms and looked away to make himself look even stupider._

_ Sachi piped up. "Lack of certification does not prove intelligence." Rukia's face was in utter shock now. Even the quiet one was against him._

_ Rukia took over his blade and started to spin it. "I feel like that was quoting something… but I'm not sure what." He started to click his fingers trying to remember what it was. "Nope, nothing is coming to me."_

_ As the trio continued deeper into the forest, they didn't encounter much at all. There was just a large amount of trees. There wasn't even a single monster._

_ "Do you think they made a spawn rate of zero while you are in this quest maybe?" Monkey was looking around for anything. He was sure that they would have found something by now. "We haven't found anything y-"_

_ Before he could finish, they walked into another clearing with an Ent in the middle. In its hands it held what looked like a teleport crystal or a healing crystal, but it was pitch black._

_ "Okay, so, what do you guys think we should do. I'm going with Sachi and me stay in the back and Rukia attack from the fron-"_

_ "LEEROOOOY JEEEEEEEENKINNNS!" Rukia rushed the monster without paying any attention to what Monkey had been saying._

_ "Goddamnit Rukia." Monkey ran after the dagger wielder, quarterstaff in hand. Sachi followed behind him slowly._

_ Rukia sarted the fight with the same general tactic he always did. He only spammed two moves during a fight, so strategies didn't really change how he would attack an enemy. He rushed up to the enemy and flashstepped, slicing the side of the enemy and ending off behind it. As it was turning around, Monkey came in from behind it and whacked the Ent with a side swing. Rukia jumped onto the monster and plunged the dagger where the forehead would be on a humanoid monster and, after removing it, kicked off the monster._

_ Not being a humanoid monster and instead a tree, and a heavy one at that, it did not stagger after the kick like usual. It retaliated instantly, catching Rukia in the back and flinging him into a tree. As he got up, he finally took notice of the health bar._

_ "Guys, it has two health bars. It's draining at about a third of the rate of a normal monster, but it must be classed as a mini boss of some kind." He looked back to the monster's hand. "I'm also worried about that crystal. They normally only cure status ailments, so why would it be so bad for a monster to grab one? And aren't they normally one use only and they are destroyed?"_

_Monkey and Sachi looked at the crystal in the monster's hands, Sachi shrugging and Monkey looking slightly uninterested. If the item was important, the quest giver would have told them what it does, right?_

_As Monkey and Rukia slowly whittled away the monster's first health bar, Sachi looked on, watching for any moment that they would need her help. Finally when the first health bar only had a sliver of health remaining, Rukia was caught by surprised with a backwards swipe from the tree Ent. She rushed into the battle, quickly drawing the monster's attention away from Rukia._

_As soon as the monster noticed her though, she froze up like a deer in headlights. She couldn't move herself out of the way of the monster's next attack. The only thing that stopped her from getting launched by the Ent was Monkey, blocking the attack. Rukia ran up to the monster and drew its attention back to himself, slashing at it from behind._

_At last the first health bar had been depleted. The Ent screamed wildly, as if shrieking. Rukia shivered, with the action bringing back memories of something that had frustrated him as a kid._

"_Bloody ReDeads, can't kill 'em, they scream in wreck your entire day, especially TP." Rukia was mumbled to himself. He failed to notice that the Ent was now holding up the crystal, about to use it._

_As it used it, two shimmering images appeared next to the monster. They appeared as carbon copies of the Ent. When the Ent finally finished using the crystal, the two shimmering figures solidified and it was impossible to tell the difference. The crystal itself though had not shattered._

"_What the hell it this!" Monkey was looking at their foes in shock._

"_Think about Guild Wars, the Mesmer class, they are likely illusions, probably don't have much strength or health." However, the lack of strength idea was quickly disproved by one of the illusionary Ents moving from where it was and swiping at Rukia, launching him into the same tree as before._

"_You have got to be kidding me. Is this why it suggested three participants. This is freaking stupid." Monkey rushed at the illusion that had attacked Rukia. He swung and the illusion shattered almost instantly. At least Rukia had been right about the lack of health._

_After using one of his health potions, Rukia got back up and rushed at the Ent he thought was the real one. After using a flashstep, the Ent shattered into nothing._

"_Goddamnit, what the hell is this." The real Ent raised the crystal again, this time retreating into the forest where it couldn't be seen. "If this is how the item behaves, it really is game breaking." Rukia slashed at one of the illusions nearby and shattered it. He then rushed into the forest after the ent._

_Of course, in the middle of so many trees, and Ent was difficult to spot. Rukia decided that he would keep punching trees until one of them moved to attack him. Eventually, in an area that didn't have too many trees around, Rukia found it._

_The Ent tried to use the crystal again, but it one created one illusion this time. Monkey and Sachi had been, rather than attacking the illusion, just blocking its attacks so that it wouldn't shatter. Rukia wasn't as quick to pick up on that. He slashed at the illusion and came after the real thing. However, NPCs in SAO had an adaptive AI, so they would often learn from their enemy's movements. Normally the foes that Rukia would be facing would have been defeated before this took any real effect, but the Ent wasn't as weak. Rukia charged up his flashstep attack again and the Ent moved backwards ever so slightly. As soon as Rukia finished the attack, the Ent was now able to reach him._

_Once again, Rukia was slammed into a tree via the back of the Ent's hand. It came after Rukia, but Rukia moved out of the way of its next attack. He attacked with his forehead stab again, being just a bit too quick for the Ent to smash Rukia while he was still on the Ent. The lifebar wasn't draining very much, Rukia's solo performance wasn't great as he had designed his play style around speed over power._

_He quickly messaged Monkey asking for some backup. Afterwards, Rukia retreated into an area he was sure the Ent couldn't reach._

"_Black Star, calling for backup, what on earth is going on here?" Monkey was joking around with Rukia again while running towards his ally._

"_Black Star needs Tsubaki to do anything really." Rukia looked at his friend, who was looking at him with a disapproving face._

"_Actually, he can attack on his own… Let's get back to the fight at hand you idiot." Monkey slammed his quarterstaff into the Ent again. "Sachi said she was fine taking on an illusion. She said that she wouldn't freeze up again a fake."_

_Rukia and Monkey each alternated between attacking and distracting, slowly draining its health bar. Once again, with only a sliver of health left, Rukia charged at it. Before he could attack, the Ent's health suddenly dropped to zero. It shattered into blue triangles and behind the monster was Sachi with her spear thrust forward._

"_Wow, I did not expect Sachi to finish off the monster." Rukia was scratching his head._

_ "It wasn't going to see me if I finished it off, so I was fine. It was about to attack you again anyway." Sachi sat down, exhausted for having to block so much against the illusion._

_ The quest giver came out of the forest to where the trio was standing. "I'm glad you could defeat the monster." He walked over to where the crystal was. "Seems like the extra power the monster gave the crystal has also dissipated."_

_ Rukia looked at the quest giver. "So wait, that crystal is normally not that powerful? Oh wait, I'm talking to an NPC…" He smacked his own forehead._

_ The quest giver started talking again. "This crystal normally creates one illusion, only once a day. The illusion has the same strength as the normal, however, the user can only control their illusion and not their body when the illusion is active. And it only had one Hp, so it is useful for a distraction."_

_ The quest giver then walked over to Sachi. "You deserve this, I think that you would benefit the most out of it. Also note that this item will be soulbound to you, so don't even try to give it to someone else."_

_ Rukia looked heartbroken. "But that item would be perfect for a ninj- I'm talking to an NPC again. Why do I keep talking to an NPC?"_

_ Monkey couldn't help but laugh. After Sachi received the item and everyone received the cor and exp, they walked back out of the forest._

_ "So, we going to tell our guilds about this or not?" Rukia had his hands folded behind his head._

_ "Eh, you guys can tell your guild, but if I tell the Black Cats about this, they'll probably put me in even more situations I'm not comfortable with." Sachi looked down at her feet again. "Anyway, I'll see you guys again some time."_

_ While they were in the forest, Sachi sent a friend request to Monkey. Rukia pestered her for one but she refused. Eventually he had given up and moped for a bit._

_ "See ya" Monkey and Rukia both said at the same time._

"Okay, there is one thing I'm not understanding Monkey. If some parts of that story had Rukia alone, how did you know what was going on?" Jinx looked sceptical.

"Eh, he told me about what had happened while he was on his own and I told him about what I did. We both knew what the other did." Monkey shrugged "And a lot more of the interesting stuff happened to Rukia, so he got more story."

Jinx looked at his friend again. "And you believed what he told you?"

"Hell no, I knew he was embellishing the story, I just toned it down to what I expected happened and what Sachi clarified via PM afterwards." Jinx and Naomi started laughing.


End file.
